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Sunday, August 9, 2015

This Date in Rock Music History: August 10

1954: Elvis Presley sang his new song "That's Alright Mama" at Overton Park in Memphis, Tennessee.1959: Brook Benton had the top R&B song with "Thank You Pretty Baby".1959: Elvis Presley moved to #1 with his 37th hit, "A Big Hunk O' Love".1961: 14-year-old Helen Shapiro became the youngest person to reach #1 in the U.K. with "You Don't Know".1963: Cliff Richard and the Shadows, the Searchers, Billy J. Kramer and the Dakotas, and Brian Poole and the Tremeloes were on the 100th edition of Thank Your Lucky Stars on BBC-TV.1963: The Rolling Stones, Acker Bilk and Long John Baldry were all at the National Jazz and Blues Festival in Richmond, Surrey, England. Sounds like they couldn't find enough jazz artists to perform.

1963: Peter, Paul & Mary were at #1 for a second week with "Blowin' In The Wind".1967: Paul Revere & the Raiders from Boise, Idaho performed before the largest crowd in the 115-year history of the Illinois State Fair (27,000).1968: The Dells rose to #1 on the R&B chart with "Stay In My Corner".

1968: The annual National Jazz & Blues Festival had some snags after being held the previous two years in Windsor--among them, the Windsor Borough Council refused to grant a dancing license. Finally, the Festival was moved to the Kempton Park Race Course in Sunbury-On-Thames, England, and it was an amazing event. Deep Purple, Joe Cocker, Jeff Beck, T. Rex, Ten Years After, the Crazy World of Arthur Brown, and the Nice performed on the second day.1968: Tom Jones rose to the top of the U.K. Album chart with Delilah.

1968: "This Guy's In Love with You" by Herb Alpert remained #1 for a 10th week on the Easy Listening chart.1969: The three-day National Jazz and Blues Festival, this time held in Sussex, England, concluded with The Nice, Pentangle, and Long John Baldry among the performers.

1974: Roberta Flack moved to #1 with "Feel Like Makin' Love", holding off Paper Lace and "The Night Chicago Died" for the moment. John Denver's #1 "Annie's Song" was at #3 followed by Elton John with "Don't Let The Sun Go Down On Me". The rest of the Top 10: Dave Loggins with "Please Come To Boston", Chicago's "Call On Me", ABBA's first hit "Waterloo" entering the Top 10, Blue Magic with "Sideshow", Jim Stafford and "Wildwood Weed" and Rufus moving from 19 to 10 with "Tell Me Something Good".

1974: John Denver took over from Elton John'sCaribou with Back Home Again, the new #1 album. Bob Dylan & the Band had Before the Flood, 461 Ocean Boulevard by Eric Clapton was #4 and Loggins & Messina had #5 with On Stage. The rest of the Top 10: Bachman-Turner Overdrive II, Journey to the Center of the Earth by Rick Wakeman, Tres Hombres by ZZ Top, Steely Dan's Pretzel Logic at #9 and Paul McCartney & Wings were at #10 after 34 weeks with Band on the Run.1975: Manhattan Transfer got their own summer variety show which debuted on CBS-TV.

1976: Elton John sold out 10 concerts at Madison Square Garden in New York City and opened the first show on this date. He grossed $1.25 million to break the previous record at the venue.1979: Michael Jackson released the album Off the Wall on Epic Records.1982: Frank Zappa and Moon Unit Zappa performed "Valley Girl" on Late Night with David Letterman.1982: Queen performed at the Veterans Memorial Coliseum in New Haven, Connecticut.1983: Kajagoogoo ("Too Shy" from 1983) fired lead singer Limahl, who began a solo career.1985: Michael Jackson took the advice of Paul McCartney and invested $47.5 million in the ATV catalog which contained 251 songs written by McCartney and John Lennon as well as songs by Pat Benatar, the Pretenders, and others. Jackson made the purchase along with record company executive David Geffen, John Johnson, founder of Ebony magazine, and John Branca, who has handled the finances of scores of groups including the Rolling Stones and the Beach Boys. McCartney had advised him to invest in music publishing a few years earlier, not knowing that Jackson would end up owning the Beatles' songs. McCartney and Lennon had lost the rights to their songs in 1968 through bad business dealings. McCartney had considered buying the rights back but thought the asking price too much. By the way, the ATV catalog, which Jackson sold back to Sony in 2008, is now worth over one billion dollars. (Note: some websites say Jackson acquired the rights on August 14, but the correct date is August 10, according to the book 'Michael Jackson in Memoriam' by Javier Fisac Seco. Some websites say that Jackson outbid McCartney for the rights. McCartney and Lennon lost the rights to the Northern Songs catalog after manager Brian Epstein died in 1967. Dick James, the co-owner with Epstein, decided to sell his share in 1968. Lennon and McCartney tried to buy the rights at that time but failed. McCartney and Ono (Lennon's widow) had been offered the catalog in 1981 for $40 million, but Yoko thought the two could get the catalog for $20 million and thus McCartney let the bid fall through. McCartney was not among the bidders in 1985 when Jackson won the rights, according to the newspaper 'The Los Angeles Times'. Some websites also claim Jackson sold the rights to the Beatles' songs in 2008. This isn't true either. While the ATV catalog was merged with Sony in 2008, Jackson retained a one-half ownership in the ATV catalog in which his heirs still own, according to 'Forbes' magazine.)1985: Paul Young led the way on the Adult Contemporary chart with "Everytime You Go Away".1985: After 38 weeks, Reckless by Bryan Adams reached #1 on the Album chart. Tears for Fears were second with Songs from the Big Chair and Phil Collins held fast at #3 with No Jacket Required. Sting had #4--The Dream of the Blue Turtles while Bruce Springsteen was #5 with Born in the U.S.A. The rest of the Top 10: The Power Station with their debut, Motley Crue with Theatre of Pain at #7, Prince & the Revolution had #8 with Around the World in a Day, Ratt was stuck at 9 with Invasion of Your Privacy and Dire Straits entered the Top 10 with Brothers in Arms.1987: Wilson Pickett was found guilty of possessing a shotgun with intent to endanger life in a New Jersey court.1992: Def Leppard began an extensive tour at Madison Square Garden.1993: The Dave Matthews Band played at The Flood Zone in Richmond, Virginia. Two of the songs at the performance were included on the album Remember Two Things.1994: The Eagles were at the Great Woods Performing Arts Center in Mansfield, Massachusetts. (Note: some websites say the concert was in Boston, but the Performing Arts Center is located in Mansfield, about 35 miles from Boston.)

1995: Van Halen appeared on Late Night with David Letterman.1995: Jimmy Buffett was the musical act for United States President Bill Clinton's birthday celebration at the White House.1999: Oasis announced that rhythm guitarist Paul Arthurs was leaving the group.2004: Esquire Magazine named Andre 3000 of OutKast the Best Dressed Man. (Note: some websites report the news occurred on August 11, but the story first appeared in 'The Village Voice' on August 10.2004: Rick Fox of the Los Angeles Lakers filed for divorce from Vanessa Williams.2006: Barbara George "I Know (You Don't Love Me No More)" from 1961) died of a lung infection in Chauvin, Louisiana at the age of 63.2008: Isaac Hayes, singer-songwriter most noted for the #1 song "Theme From 'Shaft'" died at his home in Memphis, Tennessee at the age of 65.2010: Olivia Newton-John was made an Officer in the General Division of the Order of Australia by the Governor-General in Canberra.

Born This Day:1909: Leo Fender, inventor of that great guitar, was born in Anaheim, California; died March 21, 1991 in Fullerton, California from complications of Parkinson's disease.1928: Jimmy Dean ("Big Bad John") was born in Olton, Texas; died of natural causes June 13, 2010 in Varina, Virginia. (Note: some websites claim Jimmy (real name: Seth Ward) was born in Plain View, Texas, Plainview, Texas or Olton, Texas. According to the newspaper 'The Los Angeles Times', Jimmy was born in Olton and was raised in Plainview. There is no such city as Plain View in Texas.)1928: Eddie Fisher was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; died September 22, 2010 from complications of hip surgery in Berkeley, California.

1940: Bobby Hatfield of the Righteous Brothers was born in Beaver Dam, Wisconsin; died November 5, 2003 of a heart attack brought on by cocaine.1940: Michael "Tunes" Antunes, saxophonist of John Cafferty's Beaver Brown Band1940: Daddy Dewdrop (real name Richard Monda), who gave us "Chick-A-Boom" in 1971, was born in Cleveland, Ohio.

1943: Ronnie Spector was born in New York City.1943: James Griffin of Bread was born in Cincinnati, Ohio; died of cancer January 11, 2005 at his home in Franklin, Tennessee. (Note: the magazine 'Rolling Stone' reports he was born in Memphis, Tennessee. According to the much more reliable 'Billboard', Griffin was born in Cincinnati and moved to Memphis.)1945: Larry Larden of Every Mother's Son1947: Ian Anderson, lead singer, songwriter and flautist of Jethro Tull, was born in Dunfermline, Fife, United Kingdom. (Note: some websites claim he was born in Edinburgh, Scotland. According to the book 'Jethro Tull's Thick as a Brick and A Passion Play: Inside Two Long Songs' by Tim Smolko, Anderson was born in Dunfermline, then lived in Edinburgh.)1948: Patti Austin (The #1 song "Baby, Come To Me" with James Ingram) was born in New York City.1949: Andy Cresswell-Davis, singer, guitarist and keyboardist of the Korgis ("Everybody's Got To Learn Sometime"), was born in Yatton, Somerset, England.1959: Mark Price, drummer for All About Eve who also worked with the Cure and Right Said Fred, was born in Burnley, Lancashire, England.1961: Jon Farriss, drummer of INXS, was born in Perth, Western Australia.1962: Julia Fordham, backing singer for Kim Wilde, was born in Portsmouth, England.1967: Lorraine Pearson of 5 Star was born in Romford, Essex, England. (Note: some websites report that Lorraine was born in Wembley, England. According to the book 'The Encyclopedia of Popular Music' by Colin Larkin, Pearson was born in Romford. The town is now included in the county of London, but that change did not occur until after Pearson was born.)1968: Michael Bivins of New Edition and later Bell Biv Devoe was born in Boston, Massachusetts.

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About Me

I worked at KFXD-AM & FM in Boise, Idaho for 10 years, serving as Research Director, Music Director and Sports Director among other things. During this time, I researched, organized and produced several music specials including The Top 500 Songs of All-Time and The Top 100 Artists of the Rock Era.
I started Inside The Rock Era in 2011 to counter the sea of misinformation about rock music in general and specifically which songs, albums and artists were the most successful. Since that time, Inside The Rock Era has received over one million page views.
I am the author of two books, The Top 500 Songs of the Rock Era* and The Top 100 Female Artists of the Rock Era*, both available in softcover and Kindle on Amazon and on this website.